'Rape-murder fantasy' victim endured life of abuse

A 14-year-old Pennsylvania girl raped, tortured and killed at her adoptive mother's home had been abused or neglected in at least three homes during her short life. A lawyer for Grace Packer's birth parents said they lost custody of the toddler over allegations other adults were sexually abusing their young children. Grace then was adopted by adoption worker Sara Packer when she was 3, only to have Packer's husband go to prison after molesting Grace when she was 9. He also was found guilty of raping a 15-year-old foster child. Authorities near Philadelphia this week charged Sara Packer and a boyfriend with killing Grace in a "rape-murder fantasy" carried out over many hours. The girl was beaten, raped as her mother watched, poisoned and then strangled when they found her alive hours later in an attic last July, authorities said. "It sounds like this poor girl went through hell," said lawyer David Tornetta, who had fought for the birth parents to keep their three children. He called them good people who perhaps lacked the money and skills to care for them. When he learned this week that their middle child, then called "Susan," was the girl found killed and dismembered, he wondered if he had done enough for the family. By the time Sara Packer reported her daughter missing in July — telling police the teen may have run away — she no longer wanted her, prosecutors said. She and Sullivan started planning her death as soon as Grace returned from a long stay with an out-of-state relative, they said. "She was unwanted. They wanted to ship her out. … And when that failed, they plotted to kill her," said Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Schorn, who oversees major crimes prosecutions in Bucks County. Sara Packer, 41, and boyfriend Jacob Sullivan, 44, were arrested on murder and other charges last weekend after they were found unconscious from an overdose in what authorities called a joint suicide pact. Sara Packer's public defender did not return phone messages this week. Sullivan apologized as he was led into court from the hospital, telling reporters he was "sorry for what (he) did."